A Little Help From My Friends
One of my most fun activities these days is participating in the Facebook group, Street Photography Challenge. As I look for photos to submit that are on-theme for the weekly Classic Challenge or the Mini-Challenge, I walk down memory lane. It is so interesting to see the entries of other photographers. The quality of work submitted is quite good and some of it is truly world class. I periodically judge a Challenge, which is my new favorite thing. Last of all, I get to see how a wide selection of judges choose the winners. That is a very enlightening exercise and it is the reason for this blog. Every week I am reminded that there is a huge range in what judges and, I conclude, viewers like. We have to accommodate that reality in our day-by-day posts and most especially when we are submitting entries to gallery competitions.
Because I have gotten more interested in gallery competitions, I am really focused on the problem of how to choose which images I should enter. Certainly, there is nothing about my choices for social media that inspires confidence in my own ability to predict what my viewers will like or not like. Sometimes there seems to be an inverse correlation between my preferences and their preferences. So, to be honest, when I am choosing for a competition, I absolutely factor in how well a photo has been received by my Instagram or Facebook community.
But I also am looking for a little more precise help. I want to send a selection of pictures to various people in my life who will tell me what they think I should choose. It is the modern-day equivalent, I suppose, of sitting down with an editor and a batch of pictures and deciding what is in and what is not in. It is an important exercise. Now I have done the batch of pictures thing with family members, but that requires some good luck to be where they are at the right time.
I have tried email, and it will work, but not very efficiently. When a friend had a baby and started sharing baby pictures through Apple Photos, I had a real ah-ha moment. It is super easy to create a shared Album in Apple Photos and add and subtract photos. While I do not have an Android phone, I believe it is easy to share Albums through Google Drive. It is also possible to share between the two types of devices.
Of course nothing is totally easy. Hurdle #1 can be for your recipient to recognize they have been invited to share an Album. Don’t be shy. Tell them. Hurdle #2 is that the Album you share may have a different order on their screen. That is unfortunate, because order is a convenient way for them to tell you their choices. You can number the pictures in Comments, but numbers out of order because of screen order add to the challenge of communicating picks. I suspect a brief description of the picture might be the easiest way for someone to tell you of their choices.
I am interested in entering a competition where you can submit as many pictures as you want for a comparatively small fee. I sent family members 8 choices with the idea that I would submit three. My family rallied to help. Two choices were picked by all three of my family judges. Another choice was picked by two. They are definitely going to be submitted. My little granddaughter chose one that no one else had chosen. It is dear to my heart. I can see she has good taste. It definitely will be submitted. One is a little edgy. No one picked it. But I think there should be some edge from time to time in a street photo. It will be my pick. I am going to submit five instead of three. I like to think that I might have a better chance because the selections are varied.
A different competition is coming up soon and I am expanding my net for help. In addition to three family members, I hope to get input from two street photography friends.
Entering competitions is difficult for me at every stage from the choice of what will be entered to the sending of the digital image to the printing of the final image. The first step is made easier with a little help from my friends.
Now for a little color theory.
Red
Of all of the colors, red probably has the most meaning associated with it. It is the color of:
Happiness, warmth, sunshine
Optimism, creativity, intellect
Joy, enthusiasm, passion, desire
Speed, strength, energy, boldness
Paint the town red.
Red light district.
Roll out the red carpet.
Red letter day.
The flip side:
Cowardliness, fear
Loss
Deceit, impulsiveness, betrayal
Anger, aggression, power, war
Heat, fire, danger
Bleed red ink.
Caught red-handed.
Cut red-tape.
In the red.
Red flag.
Red herring.